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Quoted: My story is pretty good In 2012 I made $190,000 as per my tax return working only one job Last year I made $50,000 working two jobs Liquidated pretty much all I could to pay everyone that I owned money to and in August 2018 I only had $20 to my name. I have more than $20 to my name so I’ve been climbing back up there and maybe one day I’ll retire Presume I've been beat.....but welcome further detail on this riches/rags/tryin' to get riches story. |
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Quoted: You bought an MP5 on a credit card?  Quoted: Quoted: Once upon a time, Chango78 lusted after an MP5. So, he went to a gun store and bought a brand new shiny SP5 with his meager savings and credit card and he was happy. The end.  https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/495488/20200525_185848_jpg-1432935.JPG Hope it was of the 0% for 18 months flavor  |
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Quoted: Presume I've been beat.....but welcome further detail on this riches/rags/tryin' to get riches story. Quoted: Quoted: My story is pretty good In 2012 I made $190,000 as per my tax return working only one job Last year I made $50,000 working two jobs Liquidated pretty much all I could to pay everyone that I owned money to and in August 2018 I only had $20 to my name. I have more than $20 to my name so I’ve been climbing back up there and maybe one day I’ll retire Presume I've been beat.....but welcome further detail on this riches/rags/tryin' to get riches story. I’d like to hear them too Give me some inspiration |
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Quoted: This past year I made great money traveling, opening stores for a retail startup group. I did the build/production side of things and there was a guy that did the retail employee training side of things. He lived in NYC and had an expensive apartment and a new Jeep GC. When on the road, our company paid up to 250/night for hotels/lodging, 80 a day for food. I never had trouble finding a place near work and would walk/take uber which the company paid for. Our build in Philly was long and there was always something wrong up there so I had a corporate apartment. Super nice place on Market St, totally paid for by company as it was cheaper than hotels for the same time. The NYC kid would stay in the Ritz and Omni, etc at 400/ night and cover the 150+ difference out of pocket as well as rent a premium car in every city. He would eat at restaurants and run up $150 tabs nightly. Well that company went bankrupt. I managed to save nearly half my income living well below my means. Last I heard, he was complaining about money troubles from his quarantined apartment on Instagram. 6 figures only goes as far as you carry it. The story of assholes living on an OT/per diem mindset. The per diem mindset only works if you're PCS'd by the .gov to a shit hole and all your shit is in a storage unit. |
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Quoted: If you make a million a year, you could still live off of 50 grand. Unless you had a purpose for doing so, why would you? I have heard it said the only thing dumber than living beyond your means is becoming the richest guy in the cemetery. There is a math to every amount. Be it 20 grand or 20 million. A point that you should spend more. A point where you are right on track and a point where you are in over your head. . Quoted: Quoted: Sure, but the two are not mutually exclusive. Frugality is subjective. If you make a million a year, you could still live off of 50 grand. Unless you had a purpose for doing so, why would you? I have heard it said the only thing dumber than living beyond your means is becoming the richest guy in the cemetery. There is a math to every amount. Be it 20 grand or 20 million. A point that you should spend more. A point where you are right on track and a point where you are in over your head. . Everything will go to my kids after I die, Why would I blow everything needlessly before I die ? Some people mate and produce offspring. |
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My sister makes shitty decisions on roommates, ends up getting fucked with rent. Takes out college loans, then buys stupid shit with them. Buys new phones all the time. New Macbook. Lived with my parents for a few months as they were trying to help her get out of her thousands of dollars of debt. Got most of it cleared up, moved out and racked the debt right back up. She had a shitty Chevy Cruze and was paying 12% interest on it, that got repoed. Now she has a pretty new Hyundai, don't wanna know the interest on that. Used part of her stimulus money to buy a new TV when her old one was perfectly fine. She just started making OK money at the casino until the Rona shut that down. |
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Quoted: Come talk to me once you start seeing significant numbers of people in their 60s dipping into their own retirement funds to pay for their 85 or 90yo parents skilled nursing facility or dementia ward at $9000/m for 2-3 years. It is happening. Just because you have not personally seen it doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Out here in the real world, people retire all the time, and they live ok, and they mostly do it without a million dollars in the bank. That was true when most retirees people with defined-benefit pensions who died in their early/mid-70s. Nowadays, much fewer people have defined-benefit pensions, and they are living until their late 80s and early 90s much more regularly. That makes it easier to outlive their retirement savings. This is a growing trend and a growing problem as more elderly retirees spend more time in hideously-expensive assisted living facilities and skilled nursing facilities. So what about all these 80 year old people I know who aren't dead and aren't living in the gutter? How in the world did they manage to retire without millions of dollars in the bank? Maybe... and hear me out here, I know it's complicated, but maybe it doesn't take millions of dollars to retire if you don't have to live like an arfcom billionaire! Come talk to me once you start seeing significant numbers of people in their 60s dipping into their own retirement funds to pay for their 85 or 90yo parents skilled nursing facility or dementia ward at $9000/m for 2-3 years. It is happening. Just because you have not personally seen it doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. Are there people who don't retire well? Sure. What does that have to do with my comments? |
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Quoted: Unless the home was truly insane, that's hard even for an American to do, assuming the 1MM / yr continued. Quoted: Quoted: I saw an interventional cardiologist with an income around 1,000,000 a year loose their home in 2008. That when I realized the more you make, the bigger the hole you can dig...... Unless the home was truly insane, that's hard even for an American to do, assuming the 1MM / yr continued. Earned 1M but the gov took 550k. I can see that being a contributor. |
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Quoted: My sister makes shitty decisions on roommates, ends up getting fucked with rent. Takes out college loans, then buys stupid shit with them. Buys new phones all the time. New Macbook. Lived with my parents for a few months as they were trying to help her get out of her thousands of dollars of debt. Got most of it cleared up, moved out and racked the debt right back up. She had a shitty Chevy Cruze and was paying 12% interest on it, that got repoed. Now she has a pretty new Hyundai, don't wanna know the interest on that. Used part of her stimulus money to buy a new TV when her old one was perfectly fine. She just started making OK money at the casino until the Rona shut that down. It's amazing to me how many people in this thread think a Macbook is a luxury purchase that apparently defines one as a spendaholic. |
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Quoted: The only way to get wealthy is to run your own business. You're never going to be wealthy selling your time (working) for some other guy to get rich. The shitty thing is if you dont start off with wealth you have little chance of ever being successful. That is the most common way, but far from the only way. The finance world is among the industries where employed people (selling their time for dollars) can become seriously wealthy. Sports and entertainment are other ways. And about 2/3rds of wealthy people started off middle class or lower. That is most. The majority of wealth in the U.S. is new wealth. Not old money. |
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Quoted: It's amazing to me how many people in this thread think a Macbook is a luxury purchase that apparently defines one as a spendaholic. Quoted: Quoted: My sister makes shitty decisions on roommates, ends up getting fucked with rent. Takes out college loans, then buys stupid shit with them. Buys new phones all the time. New Macbook. Lived with my parents for a few months as they were trying to help her get out of her thousands of dollars of debt. Got most of it cleared up, moved out and racked the debt right back up. She had a shitty Chevy Cruze and was paying 12% interest on it, that got repoed. Now she has a pretty new Hyundai, don't wanna know the interest on that. Used part of her stimulus money to buy a new TV when her old one was perfectly fine. She just started making OK money at the casino until the Rona shut that down. It's amazing to me how many people in this thread think a Macbook is a luxury purchase that apparently defines one as a spendaholic. It's a big purchase when you make shit money, have no money, and have a lot of debt. |
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Quoted: Yeah $275k got me 3000sqft in TX. ETA: But in my case you get what you pay for. This house has had a lot of expensive problems pop up over the ~10 years I've been in it. Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: My brother works in transportation. Makes probably $50k per year. His wife works in education, makes roughly the same. They have no kids. Their apartment, rented back when he was still working for a cellphone store, cost $1100/mo. Their first house was a 5 bedroom for $175k. Their second house, purchased some 3 years later, is a mansion that cost $280k. They’re looking at upgrading, having spent less than 4 years in their current house. Next one will cost between $6-800k. They also lease current year sportscars every year. And they eat out so much, they don’t have hardly any food in their refrigerator. Last I heard, my brother has a clothing store credit card with $1300 on it. He’s making minimum payments on that, and that’s just a side card to his main card... which he is also making minimum payments on. I don’t know how they sleep at night. Damn 280 gets you a mansion? I only got 1900 sq ft for that A little less than that got me 3400 sqft. in AR. Yeah $275k got me 3000sqft in TX. ETA: But in my case you get what you pay for. This house has had a lot of expensive problems pop up over the ~10 years I've been in it. As a guy with a wife, cat, and single kiddo....I don't understand the desire for the massive house. While I understand the desire for living space, the heating/cooling costs for a chateau that size gives me the willies |
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Alright, I got one. Buddy of mine is retired sf, likes to live large and amog pay for everything if we go somewhere. One day him, his wife, myself, and my gf go out for sushi and a movie. He goes to pay for the dinner (I don't even try anymore), and both his cards get declined. He has no cash. I pay for dinner and the movie for all of us, didn't think much of it. Next day he asks me if he can borrow a grand. I'm like, what for. He says that he doesn't have enough money to get to his next retirement check. I'm like, how much is that? $14000. So you blow 14 grand before your pay period every month? lol. This is the guy who asked me to go on a craigslist deal with him and when we get there he turns to me and says, Hey you got $400? I'm like, You didn't bring cash to a Craigslist deal? Who are you? "Don't look at me like that" "How am I supposed to look?"
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I have several family members that were on the receiving end of a large sum of money either due to inheritance or settlement and every single one of them are paycheck to paycheck today. I know of two that received more than 1 million in a lump sum who less than a year later didnt have a dime or anything to show for it. I have never received a large amount of money in my life. I know if I received 1 million that I sure wouldnt be workong ever again. |
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Quoted: It's amazing to me how many people in this thread think a Macbook is a luxury purchase that apparently defines one as a spendaholic. Quoted: Quoted: My sister makes shitty decisions on roommates, ends up getting fucked with rent. Takes out college loans, then buys stupid shit with them. Buys new phones all the time. New Macbook. Lived with my parents for a few months as they were trying to help her get out of her thousands of dollars of debt. Got most of it cleared up, moved out and racked the debt right back up. She had a shitty Chevy Cruze and was paying 12% interest on it, that got repoed. Now she has a pretty new Hyundai, don't wanna know the interest on that. Used part of her stimulus money to buy a new TV when her old one was perfectly fine. She just started making OK money at the casino until the Rona shut that down. It's amazing to me how many people in this thread think a Macbook is a luxury purchase that apparently defines one as a spendaholic. That’s because they aren’t part of the Lenovo master race |
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Quoted: If you make 60 grand a year, you need more than a million bucks to make that a year without working anymore. @neshomamench The question I have is, where can you get somewhere around a 6% safe return? I say safe because at this point in my life I think like Will Rogers: I am more concerned about the return of my money than the return on my money. |
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Quoted: You forgot supermodel wife and 12" dick. Quoted: Quoted: Is this the thread where everyone pretends they have no debt, pay cash for everything, invest 50% of their income, and never buy new cars? You forgot supermodel wife and 12" dick. New cars my as! Ford F-550 King Ranch! |
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Quoted: @neshomamench The question I have is, where can you get somewhere around a 6% safe return? I say safe because at this point in my life I think like Will Rogers: I am more concerned about the return of my money than the return on my money. There is no "safe" 6% return right now. There is certainly 6% returns, but there is work and/or risk. |
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Quoted: My story is pretty good In 2012 I made $190,000 as per my tax return working only one job Last year I made $50,000 working two jobs Liquidated pretty much all I could to pay everyone that I owned money to and in August 2018 I only had $20 to my name. I have more than $20 to my name so I’ve been climbing back up there and maybe one day I’ll retire Sounds like me. Cause? Well, in August of 2018 I ended up in rehab. I drank away a great business, lots of assets and many people. My income is down to approximately 15% of what it was three years ago. In rehab I had to calculate the cost of landing there. I stopped at a million dollars. What do I win? ETA...things were looking really good on the income side until the C19 hit. It'll get better. I'm too old to do it all over again. |
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Quoted: Sounds like me. Cause? Well, in August of 2018 I ended up in rehab. I drank away a great business, lots of assets and many people. My income is down to approximately 15% of what it was three years ago. In rehab I had to calculate the cost of landing there. I stopped at a million dollars. What do I win? ETA...things were looking really good on the income side until the C19 hit. It'll get better. I'm too old to do it all over again. Quoted: Quoted: My story is pretty good In 2012 I made $190,000 as per my tax return working only one job Last year I made $50,000 working two jobs Liquidated pretty much all I could to pay everyone that I owned money to and in August 2018 I only had $20 to my name. I have more than $20 to my name so I’ve been climbing back up there and maybe one day I’ll retire Sounds like me. Cause? Well, in August of 2018 I ended up in rehab. I drank away a great business, lots of assets and many people. My income is down to approximately 15% of what it was three years ago. In rehab I had to calculate the cost of landing there. I stopped at a million dollars. What do I win? ETA...things were looking really good on the income side until the C19 hit. It'll get better. I'm too old to do it all over again. If you recover from that. Life. |
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My wife and I got married and started making decent money. Went out and replaced my car with a brand new F-150 and hers with a CPO BMW 535ix. We could swing it fine at the time but didn't have a lot left over. Then we moved here and carried our mortgage along with rent for almost 6 months. Things got tight until we finally sold our old place. We spend the last year on the Dave Ramsey plan paying off all of our debts and finally finished right before the whole COVID thing with a little bit of savings. My six figure income disappeared overnight and I was furloughed for 2 months. If we hadn't have done Dave's plan we would have been hurting. There's no way my wife's income could cover what we were paying. Now I'm back to work. Guess my point is don't borrow money for shit. |
| Used to live next door to a guy that told me he went through 60k that he inherited in 2 months on nose candy. He also had an old junk truck he turned into a Chevy Cavalier. Drove that for a few months and got a Titan. Was paying $800/month on it with the car loan downside rolled in. |
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I went to a maritime academy and a lot of my classmates went down to the gulf oil fields work on drill ships, rigs, supply vessels etc. after we graduated. at the time pay for guys like us with big licenses were huge. day rates north of $1000/day weren't uncommon. so you had these kids who were fresh out of college most had never had money before so they did the predictable things. they bought big houses, bought all the toys, boats, motorcycles, snowmobiles, jet skis, sports cars etc. etc. etc. then the oil crash happened. thousands of jobs dried up, those who kept their jobs almost all saw their day rates slashed. in the months following the crash I watched these classmates go from posting on social media about living large with all their toys and big houses etc to desperately trying to sell shit as fire sale prices. personally for the past several years I've worked int he yachting industry, it's amazing to me how many rich folks people will buy the biggest yacht they can afford and seem to ignore that docking and maintaining a yacht is extremely expensive. |
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Not as extreme as some others,but a guy I used to work with had a $400K home, but couldn't furnish it. Wanna relax in a 600sf living room? Use a folding chair. Another buddy's ex wife never did laundry, she would just buy new clothes for herself and the kids when they got dirty.
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Quoted: I used to bounce nightclubs in Scottsdale in the early 2000's. Imagine an even phonier version of Jersey Shore, where the term "thirty thousand dollar millionaire" applied to everyone. Everyone. Bunch of fake Rolex's, fake tits, Dior sunglasses 24/7, rented Lambo's. It is the epicenter of douche on a budget. What club? I pulled so many chicks off the Stetson area in the 90's to early 2000's. You probably threw me out a time or two. I was there 6 nights a week for 10 years. Edit: I wasn't a douche on a budget. lol I had a lot of friends in that scene and the cars and watches were real, mostly family money but real. |
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Grew up seeing my mother and step father go through some shit. Mother always ran up her credit cards, step father was always the responsible one. Never taught me anything financial wise but watching them struggle on some shit was eye opening. Everything I've ever bought I paid cash for, if I couldn't buy it all at once, I didn't buy it. Until Dec 2016 I bought a new fully loaded truck for 20k off sticker price that I am still paying down. $600 a month payment. Currently working in oil and gas and kind of worried about job security. I was saving up to buy a new house next year, wish me luck. Plan is to pay off the house within 5 years. |
| Living beyond your means is the American way. Advertising has always promoted the idea that material possessions equate to happiness apart from the value of utilitarian purposes. For some it's about impressing your friends and neighbors with how successful they are, or a desire to have a something that will make their life easier or better in their estimation. Most of them haven't even considered that they're throwing away future financial security. They're on autopilot and don't even consider what it costs them. |
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Quoted: Alright, I got one. Buddy of mine is retired sf,..... next retirement check. I'm like, how much is that? $14000. A retired O6 with thirty years does not make this much even if they are drawing 100% from the VA. Your buddy is either a retired general officer or a liar. |
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Quoted: That’s because they aren’t part of the Lenovo master race Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: My sister makes shitty decisions on roommates, ends up getting fucked with rent. Takes out college loans, then buys stupid shit with them. Buys new phones all the time. New Macbook. Lived with my parents for a few months as they were trying to help her get out of her thousands of dollars of debt. Got most of it cleared up, moved out and racked the debt right back up. She had a shitty Chevy Cruze and was paying 12% interest on it, that got repoed. Now she has a pretty new Hyundai, don't wanna know the interest on that. Used part of her stimulus money to buy a new TV when her old one was perfectly fine. She just started making OK money at the casino until the Rona shut that down. It's amazing to me how many people in this thread think a Macbook is a luxury purchase that apparently defines one as a spendaholic. That’s because they aren’t part of the Lenovo master race Some people have work policies that don’t allow them to be around lenovos, even at home. Cough cough. |
| I was really poor and had to bust my ass for the bare minimum all of my 20s and into my early 30s. There were a couple years where I racked up a ton of debt just getting things fixed that were necessary. Made minimum payments for a while. I'm 38 now and am slowly decreasing the debt pile. Sometimes it isnt living above your means, its trying to survive and keep your family afloat. |
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My brother is a security contractor in Dubai, he will make about $160k this year...he has bought. Corvette for dads 70th bday $35k Lamborghini Gallardo $50k USD 2020 Ford F150 sight unseen in US and don't know when he's coming home $40k Took out a personal loan of $100k USD from Bank of Dubai and the cherry on top.... Bought a $400k house in Tennessee sight unseen and don't know when he's coming home. It could be a year or more. Last time I spoke with him he had $20k a month going out and had $5k in the bank...he's going to learn a valuable lesson soon and pay a sweet price for it |
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Quoted: My brother is a security contractor in Dubai, he will make about $160k this year...he has bought. Corvette for dads 70th bday $35k Lamborghini Gallardo $50k USD 2020 Ford F150 sight unseen in US and don't know when he's coming home $40k Took out a personal loan of $100k USD from Bank of Dubai What year? |
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A college friend of mine married a dude that ran up a $10k bar tab purchasing drinks for everyone present. He didn’t have the money to pay for it, of course. I knew another college acquaintance that purchased a used BMW 3 series on a high interest credit card, and then eventually had to liquidate it and other items when his dreams of becoming a super entrepreneur didn’t work out. |
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I used to work with someone, this was before they made the bankruptcy rules stricter, but they would run up debt and declare bankruptcy as soon as they were allowed to again. The guy would go on multiple cruises each year, go out to lunch each day, had season tickets to all the sport teams, and so on. |
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Quoted: What year? Quoted: Quoted: My brother is a security contractor in Dubai, he will make about $160k this year...he has bought. Corvette for dads 70th bday $35k Lamborghini Gallardo $50k USD 2020 Ford F150 sight unseen in US and don't know when he's coming home $40k Took out a personal loan of $100k USD from Bank of Dubai What year? 2008, 20k miles. He was going to ship it home but too expensive to make US legal. He is selling it and either buying Ferrari or Viper ACR. The virus is holding him up atm.  |
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